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Don't know if anyone still reads Journals on/. This place used to be packed, with EmEmalb, FortKnow, SolemnDragon, etc etc... And I'm not sure if/. still has it's relevance it once had. Kind of sad, passing of an era.

Any way, new job, I left the Elevator business, (too many ups and downs....ooof). Now in the do-it-yourself area. (hand tools). The old job was getting stale and a little flaky, they wiped out my team, luckily I already had my resume together and was looking when they moved me to "tech support". From Lead Programmer/Analyst to factory tech...yeah that's going to work...

Anyway, nearly a year afterward, I got this job. Back into programming. I'm still extremely new, and trying to learn their processes. It's like going from the kiddie pool to an Olympic sized pool. a) pee to water ratio is better, b) beau coup opportunities to grow.

My commute went from 20 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes..oof, figures just as gas prices skyrocket. The drive is nice, even if it does involve some highway driving. My wife was worried I'd hate it. But so far I'm fine. Gives me time to chill.

Job is good, if I can keep some stuff on my plate. I keep asking for more. And I'm not familiar enough with their stuff to look for improvement areas. So for now, I'm trying to find something to do to at least look busy. I want to be busy, I actually started to dislike surfing the net. I want to code. I was working on one of my own projects for a while. But even there I need something new.

I will say that the job environment here is awesome compared to where I was. My new boss was telling me how it's not as positive as it once was due to recent changes, I'm like, compared to where I was this is great. As much as some people may not care for certain decisions made and such, they all seem to really care about the products and their customers. The cynicism here is at a minimum. It's a shock to my system.

Got a beta key the other day for Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK). I'm currently the envy of my office.

Death Knight's (DK)are cool, neat powers like Death Grip, (think Scorpion from Mortal Combat). You have 6 runes, blood, frost, disease, 2 of each. From them you can can 2 spells from each category. You then have to wait for those runes to come off cool down before you can use them again. By cast these runes you get "Rune Power" like the mana,rage,energy bar currently used. This Rune Power allow you to cast mose powerful spells. Interesting approach.

Their starting area is east of Eastern Plaguelands. You're initial job given by the LK himself is to terrorize and decimate the town of Avalon. You burn and pillage your way through the area. It's not bad, you start at 55 currently, and if you time it right you'll be 58 when you complete it. You start out with zero talent points, gaining them through quests and levels. In the beta it's nice, repecs cost 1 copper, for testing obviously. Ebon Hold is the place DKs call home. It's like a stripped down floating Undercity. It has trainers and vendors, the basics. You also get a spell, kind of like the Druids, where you can open a portal back to it. Almost like a second hearth stone, which you can pick up in any inn later on.

I went Frost with my first spec, and I can't really tell how I'm doing yet. I haven't load any DPS mods yet do who knows what I'm doing. Currently in the Outlands my DK is level 59 and doing decent damage from what I can tell. But like I said, I need MODs loaded to get a good feeling.

Working the Outlands with my DK...Outlands again...ugh.

Personally I don't really care for this, I've just done 2 years in the outlands with my Warrior and Hunter, you mean I have to drag my DK through it too?. I'll be on there trying to get him to next big level milestone.

Once you hit 68 then you can travel to Northend.

I've only been to been to the Howling Fjord so far, so I can't really comment on it much. I did about 5 quests in it, and they're the standard "collect", or "burn so many", "feed so many" type quests.

Haven't tried Inscription yet.

Mounts and pets, this is a nice streamline. They do not take bag space anymore, they have their own tab on your character sheet. So collect away.

Achievements, this looks more polished than I thought it would. I thought it was a "tack-on" to match up with WarHammer, but it feels much more refined and thought out than that. It may have been planned all along, or not. But it looks like a nice addition.

Some bugs to note if you happen to get a key.

1. "Carrot on a Stick" is bugged. You can't apply it to your mounts yet.2. If you are a DK and you start glowing green. It's your spec. You talented "Blood Worms". This is bugged. You are only supposed to be green if you call out your worms.3. The bombing runs in Hellfire Peninsula is bugged. You can't dismount.

I've had one crash to the desktop and one complete system freeze from the game so far. All in All that's not too bad. I've had retail games bomb more often. But still Blizzard is trying to keep even those from happening.

If you happen to get a key, I'm on the Northend server, look me up.

My DK is currently Level 59, Tauren name Retaxis.The Warrior is Level 80, Undead named Sprat.

My time maybe tight right now, but I can't do Maddie's feedings. So I have a few minutes now and then for WOW.

I'm still on a 10 day trial, a friend from work gave me a key. Damn HIM!!! now I'm a 7th level Undead Warrior Herbalist Alchemist.

All I have to do is balance Family, Work, House, and WOW. Just what I needed. Oh well. Once Maddie gets a little bigger I can put her in the baby carrier and strap her to me. Then we can decimate the Alliance as Father and Daughter and rule the world!!! Hahhahah!!!

But now tonight I'm going to dinner with guys from work and the CIO. This should be interesting. I probably won't get home till 10. Just in time to take Maddie off Amy's hands so she can get a shower. Luckily these dinner things are few and far between.

Baby picture of Madelyn Joi. You'll have to select November from the drop down.

Right now Maddy is resting comfortably in her bassinet. Mommy is giving me chores. I have to run to the store, of course.

I'll probably post one more journal entry with pictures, but after that I think this part of the journey is finished.

This is kind of weird, for the past 18 months or so I've been posting about a possible baby, and now we have Madelyn. I've gone from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and back up again. It's been a stressful, tear-filled journey. At the end here I have 1 son, Zach, and 1 daughter Madelyn. I wish I could have both, but I couldn't have had one with out the other.

Thanks to everyone who supported Amy and me on this journey. I made some new friends I may never have had if it was for/. , so thanks to/. as well.

elmegil, thank you for your support and emails during the lows. They gave me the push to keep going. It's amazing to me how compassionate people are towards others that they never met. You're are a good man.

"This isn't the end, only the beginning of a new chapter", somebody probably said this before, but for me it's true. I'm not going anywhere, I'll probably post journals on occasion writing about the trials and tribulations of raising a daughter. But this is finished.

She comes equipped with 10 fingers and 10 toes, and a hearty appetite.

Mom (Amy) is doing well, sore, but well.I'm doing good too.

I will provide links to pictures later as well as more details. I just came home to shower, feed cats, and grab some things. Our mothers will start showing up at 11am so I need to get back to my wife for moral support.

We've now switched gears. Instead of praying for her to stay in till week 36, we are now waiting eagerly for Maddy's arrival. She can show up at any time now. The official due date is Nov. 10th, I'm still thinking it will be Oct 27th. I don't know why I picked that day, I just did. We'll see how close she gets.

Amy is huge and the poor girl has stretch marks out the wazoo. She's all worried about them, I'm not. They are a necessary evil for some women. They say they're genetic, her mom had them. So what are you going to do? As long as she's healthy and Maddy's healthy, I'm happy.

The stress has now moved to the birth, Amy's already asking for pain meds for it. I think she'll be fine, this time will be definitely different than last. I still have those nagging "what-ifs" dancing around in my head, you know, cord issues, labor complications. I keep those to myself though, I don't need Amy to get all wound up about them. Once the baby is in my hands, yelling at me about how cold it is in the outside world, I'll get to relax, if only for a brief second. Then the other "what-ifs" can start up, day care, school, college...etc.

We are still debating about moving away, far away from our parents. I'm thinking Pittsburgh (240 miles away), Amy's thinking Shippensburg (40 miles away). I'm going to piss her mom and/or my mom off, I know it. I can just feel the tension already, they want to "share" with us all of their knowledge. (sorry for the "" that I use so much, it's a very limited tool to show sarcasm. I'm a very cynical person.) Knowledge transfer is fine, to a point. I may have to take us into seclusion.

Other than the week, nothing has changed.

I bought the mini-dv camera, Amy has her bag packed, the cats are aware that "something" is happening soon. I think we're about as ready as we can be for now.

Yesterday we had the shower. Maddy better be a girl, (every picture says she is), we were given a ton of pink dresses. I cheered when it was any other color. We also got 4 or 5 quilts/afghans.

As far as baby progress...She's about 6 lbs (she was 5.5 last week at the doctors, so I'm adding the extra.5). So that puts us at about 8 - 8.5 lbs for a birth weight. That's about what I expected. Amy, obviously would prefer 6.5 to 7 lbs. But as long as Maddy's healthy.

Maddy is an active little thing, we can see her moving around, kind of neat and freaky at the same time.

Our stress level has dropped considerably. Amy got her last shot this morning, so after this week any thing goes. I'm starting to get excited about this, it's still difficult though. All the "what-if's" keep popping into my mind. I want to be prepared for everything, but that's not possible or practical.

Maddy's room is mostly finished. We have the psychedelic mobile hanging on the cribs, funky colors and swirls, plus it plays Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven. The crib and dresser are put together, the only thing we need to do yet it put the crib sheet on.

The cats are starting to sense the changes. Tarot, the english gentleman cat, will not like the loud noises or distruptions. However my guess is he'll be cordial to Maddy. Gigi, Surf-punk kitty, I'm not sure, she can handle the noise, but she gets pissy {angry pissy}. I've had her hiss at me just for looking at her. She doesn't swat with claws much anymore, but she still makes me nervous about how she'll deal with Maddy. Hopefully she'll just escape to the basement or under the bed. I can see her being interested in Maddy's toys. The cat steals Amy's pony-tail holders, she physically opens the drawer and pulls them out. I think there are about 20 scattered through out the house. We have to find them all before Maddy starts to crawl.

I'd love to find a Cesar Millon for cats, I don't think that person exists.

So to sum up...as of Week 34, Everybody is good, Doctors are happy.

I'm picking Oct 27th as the birthday. The only reason for the date is that 27 is common number to "Weird Al" albums. No other reason.

Amy and I took the day to prepare flowers for Zach's stone. We got him some "Little People" giraffes for a present. We connect certain animals to him. Giraffes and Cardinals. Cardinals because on the morning before we lost him Amy remembers hearing cardinals out side chirping. In an esoteric way we feel that was him saying goodbye then.

Giraffes? I'm not sure why. But we think of him when we see them.

It was touch and go yesterday. There were moments I thought I'd lose it again, but Amy and I seem to hold each other up pretty well.

Some weird coincidences, we had ordered a dresser for Madelyn. It came yesterday on Zach's birthday. Also we had birthing classes last night, at the hospital. Exactly 1 year later we were back to the scene of "crime". That was a weird feeling.

As for week 27, as of this past Monday Amy is on bed rest. Not the extreme type, just the stay off your feet, take it easy, and no going to work.

She seems to be progressing a little faster than the baby. So the docs gave her beta-something or other to help the baby's lungs develop sooner, just in case. But over all she seems well, baby is well. Maddy is kicking and moving, good heartbeat.

According to one of the tests the docs did, we have atleast 2 more weeks before problems could happen. I say atleast, I'm guessing in 2 weeks they'll do the test again. They were looking for some labor hormome, they didn't find it. So we have till about week 30.

Amy seems to think that Maddy will make her grand entrance at week 34. I'm saying the end of week 37. I hope I'm right.

Madelyn Joi. I think that's what we are going to go with for a name. My brother, a comic book guy, said, "MJ, where's Spidey?". I'll probably call her that on occasion, MJ, not Spidey.

It's kind of weird now, we're further along than where we were last time. So it's all new from here on out. I'm still a little skittish about putting the crib together. I think that may end up being a little emotional.

We did order the dresser/hutch thingy, so that's something else to put together. I may put that up before the crib. Something about that crib, it being Zach's, I just have to get past that.

Zach's birthday is coming up next week, August 17th. The closer I get to it the more I think about him, the day, Amy...the whole unfairness of the situation. We wanted him, he wanted to live, everybody was denied their wish. But now we have Madelyn to look towards, care for, love, teach... Damn, I hope we don't screw her up.

Amy is doing really well, she looks good, sounds good. Her birthday was yesterday, 29, she's dreading next year. She's done some shopping, we now have a plethora of dresses, and shoes. They only thing getting to her is the heat, but we do have AC.

Something weird, we started birthing classes last week. Yeah, we've already been through one birth, but we never got the classes. According to the class instructors they want you to be 30 weeks before attending the classes. They should start them sooner, at like week 14 or something.

Spread the classes out. Right now they talk about nutrition to women who are 35 weeks along...duh, should have talked to them at the beginning. With Zach, if we had been aware of some of the danger signs that they discussed we might have been able to save him, but our classes didn't start to about 2 weeks after he was born. To late, sorry please play again.

Yep, I'm still angry, hurt, sad (maybe depressed, Amy thinks so, and she should know). But I, I will survive...yada yada yada.

We had another set of ultrasounds done today. I'm thinking by the end we will have a flip book; "Here's one when you were a blob. (ala Stern), Here's one when your fingers were just nubs, here's one where you looked like Charlie Brown...etc

Amy is doing well, she not nearly as big this time. For some reason it's reassuring. We, as a couple, are starting to come out of our protective shell. It's really tough not getting excited, but at the same time we need to get excited to a point. We don't want to get burned again, but we also want to bond with Maddy as much as possible. It's a weird balancing act. I think if we can get passed we 25 then we'll breathe a brief sigh of relief. Then we need to get past Zach's birthday. Dang, his first birthday is coming up fast. I think I scheduled the day off. That will probably be a tough day for both Amy and me.

It helps knowing though that he's looking out for us, and his baby sister. In a way I wish I could have both of them, Zach and Madelyn. But I know I couldn't. That's one of the cruel twists of life.

We went shopping after the sonagram, we bought 2 newborn girl outfits, and a pink bunny. I picked out the bunny. Amy and I have this agreement, I think we do atleast, we can start buying stuff now. However if we lose Madelyn, everything we bought will get donated to some charity.

In the mean time, I'm planning on enjoying the fact that we have a daughter, who seems to be healthy. And from now on I will always have one.

One saying keeps ringing in my ears:"When you have a boy, all you worry about is one little boy.
When you have a girl, you worry about all the little boys" - not sure who said it, but I like it.

So far so good. Amy is doing well, she's not getting as big as fast as last time. Plus her pains and sicknesses are a little different. So now we're both thinking it's a girl. No proof of that, just a gut feeling. I'll be happy with a baby. Boy or girl. She's currently at 15 weeks. 9 more till we hit the point we were at with Zach. That's kind of scary. We are being as careful as possible. Starting in June we see the Neo-Natalist doctors in York, (bigger better hospital 30 minutes away).
I'd post the pictures of the first sonagram, but I think Amy would freak. We got to see that the kid had all the major pieces, head, arms, legs. So so far so good.

And after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, she was able to pry my hands away from the Firebird. It was time, I guess. It had low miles but was becoming a maintenence problem. Plus whenever we drove it any where Amy would get sick.

So now I have an '06 Scion tC. It's the V2.0 one, Blue Mica Blitz paint, special grills, iPod capable, MP3 ready. It's a zippy little 4 cylinder. Reminds me of my Dad's old Nissan Sentra. It has a better use of the interior space than the Firebird. Plus it has the Child seat LATCH stuff. Side impact airbags, blah blah blah. It's a neat little car. Definitely not a f-body GM.

Pictures of the "Old" and "New" are available. I finally signed up for a Flickr account. I'll post some more when I'm finished here.